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Part 3
It was the beginning of April 1865. Lincoln had a dream. He saw he was wandering around the rooms of the White House, and he heard crying from every room. Searching for those voices, he entered the East Room of the White House. There he saw a shrouded corpse with its face covered, while many people were sitting there and crying.
Lincoln asked a guard, who died in the White House?
The guard replied, "President."
He was killed by an assassin.
With that, the crowd's crying became louder, and Lincoln woke up.
I am Muhammad Ahmed and You are Reading the last episode of Who Was Abraham Lincoln.
When Abraham Lincoln became president, he received death threats. You have watched the failed plot of Baltimore in the second part. Lincoln received so many threatening letters that he did not have time to read them. And he had collected them all in a large envelope, Word Assassination was written in bold letters on the envelope.
Lincoln's close associates feared his assassination and forced him to keep security. The army was stationed on the lawn of the White House. Whenever Lincoln went out in his chariot, he was accompanied by cavalry. But even with these arrangements, Lincoln's heart was not satisfied. He once said that if someone planned to kill him... then it would happen whether he wore a mail or kept guards around him. Because when it is decided to kill someone, there are thousands of ways to kill him.
On the morning of April 14, 1865, Lincoln got up early as usual and got some work done before breakfast. Then he spent the rest of the day as usual. Lincoln attended a cabinet meeting and met with General Grant. He ordered that no retaliation be carried out against anyone in the rebel states. Lincoln said there was no bloodshed. Already much blood had been spilled.
He then went to his office after lunch and decided on some of Court Martial's cases. Lincoln abolished the death sentence of a rebel spy and pardoned a fugitive Union Army soldier. At noon Lincoln told his wife that he had never been happier in his life. Shortly before dusk, Lincoln rode in a chariot with his wife. His wife was very sad after the death of their son William.
Lincoln continued to try to end the sadness by talking lovingly to her. He said we should be happier in the future because the war and the death of William have made our lives very difficult. That evening Lincoln and Mary went to see a play at the famous Fords Theater in Washington. There was a box in the theater for both of them. A flag was draped on the box.
Then Lincoln and Mary's carriage stopped in front of the theater. They were accompanied in the carriage by Major Henry Rathbone and his fiance. Both couples were taken to the presidential box. As soon as Lincoln entered the box. Everyone in the hall below stood respectfully. The orchestra on stage started playing the music 'hail to the chief'.
Lincoln smiled and nodded, thanking them for the honor, and then sat down in a comfortable chair. Mary sat down with him while Major Henry and his fiance were sitting to their right. The play began as Lincoln sat down. It was a comedy called 'Our American Cousin' starring Laura Keene. Lincoln laughed heartily at the play's humorous dialogues. The four people in the box had their backs to the door.
The door was not locked, and John Parker, a U.S. police officer, was on guard. But Parker quit his job and went downstairs to watch the play. Seeing the door empty, a killer approached the door with a pistol and a knife. He had decided that today he will kill Lincoln at all costs. Because in his view, Lincoln was a dictator who had deprived the southern states of their independence.
Drama's performance was still ongoing in the theater, music was playing. People were laughing at a comedy act when the door to Lincoln's box opened. The killer rushed in with a pistol in his hand. He struck Lincoln in the back of the head and fired.
As soon as the shot was fired, Lincoln fell forward in his chair and became unconscious. Mary hurriedly attended to him and started screaming. Major Henry turned his head to look at the killer, who had a pistol in one hand and smoke was coming out of it barrel. He had a knife in his other hand. Major Henry jumped up and attacked the assassin, but the assassin stabbed him and jumped on the stage twelve feet below the box.
On stage, he shouted a slogan. Which meant "thus always with the tyrants." Although there were hundreds of people in the hall, no one tried to stop him. Because it was the famous stage actor John Wilkes Booth. And people though his move was part of the drama. John Booth stepped out of the stage before people knew the truth.
A horse was waiting for him outside the theatre. He rode the horse and escaped. Moments after his escape, people realized the real situation, and then there was a stampede in the theater. People were screaming and trying to get out. Two doctors ran to Lincoln's box.
Lincoln was unconscious. The bullet struck him in the skull above his left ear, then it went through the brain until it finally stopped behind the right eye. Both doctors were trying to save Lincoln's life. Shortly afterward, six soldiers entered the president's box.
The injured president was picked up and taken to a boarding house across the street in front of the theater and laid on a bed. But the bed was small and the tall Lincoln could not fit in.
So he was laid sideways on the bed. Now five doctors were trying to save his life, but Lincoln did not seem to be able to regain consciousness. The doctors thought he would not survive, so to keep his last moments as calm as possible, People close to him were called around. His son Robert Lincoln was also sitting near his father's deathbed. Mary Todd had lost her senses, she was pleading to bring his son Ted.
She said Lincoln loved Ted, He would talk to him. That night Ted was watching a play in another theater. When the soldiers approached him and told him about his father, he screamed, He said, they killed my father, they killed my father But instead of taking Ted to Lincoln, the soldiers took him to the White House.
It was happening here and there was turmoil in the city. Secretary of State William Seward was also assualted after the Lincoln attack. Rumors were circulating in the city that rebel groups were about to seize the capital. As a result, Washington was taken over by the military and cavalry patrolled the streets.
56-year-old Lincoln breathed his last at 7:22 a.m. on April 15, 1865.
Lincoln was covered in a white sheet. The US Secretary of War was also present on the occasion,
He said that now "He belongs to ages."
His funeral took place on April 19, the funeral procession was taken from the White House to the Capitol Hill The black soldiers were walking along, playing drums in a low voice. Churchs' bells were ringing throughout the city.
Lincoln is said to have said in his youth that he did not believe much in religion. After becoming a politician, he used God's name in his speeches and quoted Bible passages. But he never said he was a Christian. He even said that since he was not religious, it was like a tax on his reputation It means that his popularity was decreased among his voters.
According to historians, Lincoln tolerated a lack of popularity among voters but never tried to portray himself as a religious person. Because of Lincoln's words, there is a debate to this day as to whether or not Lincoln believed in religion.
On April 21, a special funeral train carrying Lincoln's coffin left for his home state of Illinois, 1,654 miles away. Another coffin was placed on the train along with Lincoln's coffin. It contained the remains of Lincoln's son, William, who died during the American Civil War. Now the father and the son were going to be buried in the same place.
Lincoln's coffin train traveled through 7 states and 180 cities. The train stopped at all major cities en route. Where a large number of people would pay their last respects to their beloved President. When the train entered the state of Illinois on the night of May 2, thousands of people had gathered on both sides of the track And huge bonfires were lit to pay tribute to Lincoln. At nine o'clock in the morning, the train reached Springfield. The station and its surroundings were packed with people. People were also standing on the roofs of nearby houses.
As soon as the train stopped, Lincoln received a cannon salute. Mourning songs were sung and bells of all the churches were also rung. Lincoln was buried in Springfield's Oak Ridge Cemetery. And yes, Lincoln's killer, the famous drama actor John Booth, was killed two weeks later. He was tracked down by security forces and surrounded in a cabin at a farmhouse in Virginia. The cabin was first set on fire and then he was shot by an officer. A memorial inscription is now fixed at the place where the cabin once stood. Because that cabin no longer exists. But even Lincoln couldn't rest in his grave. His body was exhumed seventeen times, sometimes out of fear of theft and sometimes because of repair of the tomb. At one point, Lincoln's coffin was almost stolen.
Actually, it was easy to break into Lincoln's first tomb. Lincoln's coffin was placed in a vault and locked from the outside. Seeing this unsafe monument, a gang of counterfeiters in Illinois planned to steal Lincoln's coffin. They decided to steal Lincoln's coffin and demand a ransom of 200,000 from the US government They also wanted to secure the release of the gang leader who was in jail.
They chose the date of November 7, 1867, to steal the coffin. Because the US presidential election was taking place that day and the gangsters were convinced... That at night people will be waiting for the election result and the graveyard will be empty. So on the night of November 7, when the whole of America was listening to the election results, a monument to a president was being torn open in Springfield.
The gangsters broke the lock of Lincoln's monument, opened the gate, and began to take Lincoln's coffin out of the marble box. But they did not know that one of their accomplices was an undercover police officer. He hid seven plainclothes policemen in the cemetery. At his signal, the seven policemen attacked the gangsters. The gangsters barely escaped but were later caught and punished.
Even after that, Lincoln's body and his safety remained a problem. He was often buried and then exhumed for some reason. His last resting place which you see was last built on September 26, 1901. But by then it was rumored that Lincoln's body had disappeared from the coffin. So the coffin was opened and twenty-three people peeked inside and confirmed that the body inside it, belonged to Abraham Lincoln.
The coffin was then closed again. Then, under the direction of his son Robert Lincoln, the coffin was locked in a large cage and buried twenty feet below. Two tons of concrete was also poured on it. It has not been reopened since.
Abraham Lincoln's three sons and wife are also buried here. Only Robert Lincoln is not buried here. 14 thousand books have been published on Lincoln's life. Countless theses, research papers, hundreds of films, and plays have been made. Memories of him are spread across the United States.
The town of New Salem, where he began his career, has been rebuilt. The monuments that were destroyed have been rebuilt in the same way and preserved for future generations. Despite all this, no one in the world today is alive among Lincoln's descendants. Because after the children of Robert Lincoln and his daughters, the family line could not go beyond.
Friends, how do you like the story of this most important chapter in American history and the life story of its most important character?
Be sure to write to us in the comments what kind of leader do you think Lincoln was and what can we learn from this chapter of history?
If you haven't seen this three-episode series complete...
To know how Abraham Lincoln transformed from a boatman to the president of the United States. Touch here.
Here is the story of the time in American history when America was broken and the civil war broke out.
And this is the story of those who were killed in the dark alleys.
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